updated 11:20 pm EDT, Tue September 11, 2012

Latest low-power design in the 'Core' family of processors

Opening the 15th Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Intel Chief Product Officer Dadi Perlmutter unveiled the new "Haswell" processor family. The keynote speech demonstrated test systems running the fourth-generation Core processor, based on the same 22nm process used in the third-generation Ivy Bridge family of processors.

The new Haswell family is tailored for lower power operations. The new processor produced comparable performance to an Ivy Bridge processor running at half the power requirements. The combination will allow thin, mobile form factors to evolve, said Perlmutter in the keynote. A system based on a 10-watt Haswell is expected to have similar performance to a 17-watt Ivy Bridge processor.

Additionally, the new chip is predicted to have twice the graphics capability of Ivy Bridge. Direct X 11.1, OpenGL 4.0, and OpenCL 1.2 are expected to be fully supported. Haswell should be able to either drive 4K displays, or run three physical HD-quality monitors side by side as a single monitor. Analysts expect the on-board video circuitry to be roughly equivalent to a Radeon 6450 in performance, but different models of the Haswell chip will have variable levels of video performance.

"It was designed with mobility in mind," Perlmutter said, and the line should be able to "span the power performance [range] from the tablet to the ultrabook to a high-performing desktop workstation." Overall, the theme of the keynote was redefining computing, and use of the new processor family in everything from small to large devices, all the way from a smartphone up to a server. The new processor family is expected next year, with no specific timetable or pricing announced.